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To my wonderful, loyal, faithful readers. I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate you!

The Art Show last week went well. It was combined with a recital. (1st and 2nd grade did a group recital with recorders, grades 3-5 a group recital with violins, grades 6-8 a group recital with guitars, preschool-Kindergarten sang a song or two–Chicklet was invited to participate with them which was a fun surprise–she was smashing, and individual piano recitals–Chic’s first.)

But my life is no slower, and I do not see it getting that way until mid-June when summer is here and we are back from our semi-annual trip to Missouri (which is going to include a side-trip to North Dakota this year.) You know I am behind at visiting you, and obviously posting. I will try to get a thing or two up here, but no promises. My life is scheduled to the maximum second, and right now there are many, MANY other things take up the “spare” time I have never had. (The Art Show is an example. I am the art teacher, and I am the only one who made it happen. I had absolutely no help, which is not necessarily bad, but it might give you a tiny insight into my time limitations. This week I have to disassemble it all, among other things.)

So I will be visiting My World and Sky Watch since I am on the team for those memes, but no commenting because I do not want to encourage return visits to the current nothingness of this blog. I will make efforts when I can to visit you, but it is likely I will do what I do not wish and “mark all as read” on everything before this is all over with.

I do miss you. And I apologize. But when I have a few extra minutes on a weekend or evening, I need to spend it with my family right now.

So I will see you around. Hopefully soon, but I just do not know.

Again, thank you for your faithfulness. I never forget these things, even if I do not have an opportunity to respond at the moment.

I should have posted this sooner, but I did not have time. I hope it’s not too late for someone who did not know about this already to participate.

And what are you doing tonight from 8:30 till 9:30 pm? I plan to be home in the dark. (But that does not mean I will be sitting around, bored, with nothing to do!)

Each year, individuals, governments and businesses around the globe are encouraged to switch off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is an Australian initiative that began in Sydney in 2007 to help combat climate change. In 2008, Earth Hour involved between 50 and 100 million people in 370 cities and towns around the world, including Chicago, Toronto, Copenhagen, Dublin, Atlanta and Bangkok. Earth Hour 2009 takes place on Saturday 28 March. By turning off our lights, we can send a message to the world’s leaders that strong action needs to be taken to combat climate change.

One more thing. I am not the type of person to participate in something like this just today, and not every day. If I were not already doing most everything I can to conserve resources, I would not do this unless I planned to start now to make this a daily part of my life. It is not that difficult to turn off the lights once in a while, or even reduce their use every day. (Granted a little tougher with kids in the family who just do not learn to always turn off lights, but they can be trained to do better, and we can get more exercise going here and there to turn them off after they have left them on.) If conservation is not your way of life, try to think of some things you can do to head in that direction. If it is your way of life, maybe there is one more thing we can do. I am just not into one-day changes about anything.

One morning last week I was lying in bed, rather groggy, just before 5 a.m. Prince Charming gets up between 4:30 and 4:50 every morning, so he was downstairs. Then I heard this strange sound, sort of a jingling. I could tell it was coming up the stairs. Then I heard Prince Charming breathing. I cracked open an eye to see what was making the jingling noise. Just then he said, “You asked for ice in your water, right?”

“WHAT?”

Reader, you must understand that I drink a lot of water. I drink it all day long. I drink it before I go to bed. (Thank goodness I have a strong bladder.) But I never, EVER drink water in the morning before something else goes in my mouth. I cannot tolerate the taste of water on morning, yukky-mouth! I must eat or brush my teeth before drinking water, neither of which is going to happen by 5 a.m. on most mornings. This is a known fact in the household. The other thing to know is that I do not like ice water in my giant 34-oz. mug because it STAYS icy forever. I like cool water, but have sensitive teeth. Cold water is not a good thing.

Apparently Prince Charming had dreamed that I had asked for ice water. This is strange because he never remembers his dreams. Now that I am thinking about it, maybe he remembers lots of them, but he mixes them up with reality!

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This is what it looks like around my computer these days. (And a mug of water–icy or not.)

By the way, I just found these cough drops. They are my favorite. EVER. They are not too strong, but they work, and they have a “soothing honey center.” I live for that center!

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Last Wednesday morning found the three females of the house getting ready to go to school. It was in a more relaxed manner than normal for a Wednesday because the oldest female was sick enough that she decided she would not be teaching art that day. (This has nothing to do with this story, but I must tell you that I am NOT the type to cop out on something like that. But Wednesdays are non-stop for me from 5 a.m. – 9 p.m. with minimum 3 different “jobs” or activities, and art is the most draining of all. I knew I would not last in a functioning manner until the end of the day, so something had to go. I have more flexibility with art that the other things.)

I was upstairs herding the girls when I realized an altercation was in process regarding an Ariel music box belonging to Chic (purchased IN Disneyland on Chic’s 5-year-birthday-trip) which Chicklet had apparently broken. This is not the first incident in which Chicklet assumed ownership of anything that suited her and somehow altered it. Thankfully, it was something that was easy to fix, but this did not excuse Chicklet’s behavior, so it was time for punishment for her crime.

Me: “Chicklet, you know we do not play with anyone’s toys unless they are here, we ask and they allow it.”

Chicklet (meekly): “I know.”

Me: “Do you want to throw away some of your toys or get a ‘spank?'”

Chicklet: “Throw away one of my toys.”

Me: “Go get something. But I will decide if it is eligible.”

Chicklet ran off and brought back a Polly she had gotten from McDonald’s. NOT eligible! I told her that she needed to find something else. But she could still choose the “spank.” She preferred to throw away toys, so she ran down the hall again.

Chic (with worry and concern all over her face): “A spank would be better!”

Me: “I know, but she does not think so.”

So Chic ran down the hall and commenced to tell Chicklet all the merits of getting a quick spank vs. throwing out toys FOREVER! Chicklet was not moved. The discussion lasted quite some time. She returned with another Polly to add to the pile. She did not even cry. In fact, she skipped away.

My flight will leave 20-something degree (Fahrenheit) Albuquerque for 70-something degree Orlando in about an hour. I am not complaining except that I will have to paint my toenails.

My laptop has no photos on it, so I will not be blogging while I am gone.

Hopefully some semblance of routine will return late next week.

However, I DO have a laptop, so I hope to do a little blog visiting in my free time… which will not be much because I am going to a stamping event and then visiting a good friend. But hopefully I will “see” some of you in the next few days.